Time away from football showed Gene Chizik how he wanted to return

Dan Wolken

USA TODAY Sports

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — There are scars on Gene Chizik’s career that will never completely go away, circumstances he can’t reverse, feelings that lingered for a long time about the way Auburn dumped him two years after delivering the school’s first national championship in more than a half-century.

But when Chizik makes his return to coaching Thursday night as North Carolina’s defensive coordinator in a nationally televised game against South Carolina, he will do so as a man empowered to be the one thing that was so hard for him to pull off as a head coach: Himself.

The aloof, dispassionate caricature that Chizik struggled to escape during turbulent times at Auburn has been replaced by a version unafraid to share his personality and thankful to go back to his roots as one of the finest defensive minds in college football.

“I look back on things, and there's parts of this profession that I did not enjoy when I should have,” Chizik said. “I look back on that and feel like I’m going to enjoy whatever I’m doing (now) because I don’t have to do it. This is my choice, and I won’t choose to be miserable. I just want it to be different.”

There were good times, of course, during Chizik’s four-year run at Auburn, culminating with the Cam Newton-led 2010 team that went 14-0 and beat Oregon for the national title. You could even argue that Chizik’s teams overachieved each of his first three seasons before the bottom fell out in 2012.

But there was also a certain tension right from the start. Fans protested when he was hired in 2008 after going 5-19 at Iowa State. Prominent alumnus Charles Barkley claimed that race factored into Chizik getting the job over then-Buffalo coach Turner Gill. Immediately Chizik was on the defensive, a posture that became even more pronounced as Auburn fought off accusations of impropriety in Newton’s recruitment.

Even winning the championship didn’t give Chizik much breathing room. He continued to face scrutiny, first about the behavior of Auburn players off the field and then the on-field product, which spiraled to 3-9 in 2012 without a single victory in the SEC.

Suddenly without a coaching job for the first time in nearly 30 years, the media did not seem a likely place for Chizik to rehabilitate his image. But co-hosting a radio show on Sirius/XM and talking about college football without the instinct to protect himself allowed Chizik to show a different side of his personality — one that people instantly liked.

“I always joked with him about it, because when he was at Auburn, he was (difficult),” his co-host Chris Childers said. “He didn’t give you anything. He was rough around the edges, grumpy. But working with him, he couldn't have been a better guy, and he was fantastic on the radio. He wasn’t one of those guarded coaches who wouldn’t give an opinion.

“He would joke about the fact he strategically would act that way (at Auburn). He wouldn’t give you any insight. He didn’t want to be bothered with it. But Gene Chizik is is a really good guy who loves football and coaching kids. His perception could not be further from reality.”

After building his presence in the media for two years — he was hired for TV work by the SEC Network last season — Chizik’s career could have gone in a number of directions. He enjoyed spending time at home, taking real vacations and attending his kids’ school events. Getting a $7.5 million buyout from Auburn meant there was little urgency to jump back into a job he didn't want.

But he's also a coach at his core with a terrific résumé and, at age 53, plenty of good years left.

“The glass half-full scenario is I'd never trade the two years I just had with my family for anything,” Chizik said. “Who gets a chance to take two years off in the middle of their work life and do whatever you want? I had a blast. (But) when you sit out for two years, if you’re a competitive guy, you miss competition and miss challenges, and I missed that.”

What North Carolina and longtime friend Larry Fedora offered Chizik wasn’t just an opportunity to compete again but to do what he does best: Fix a defense that needed a ton of help.

Under Vic Koenning last season, the Tar Heels ranked 116th in FBS in scoring defense (39.0 points per game), 117th in total defense (497.8 yards per game) and rushing defense and 109th in red zone defense while finishing 6-7.

When Chizik came in, he practically had to start over, going back to the basic fundamentals of tackling before worrying much about scheme. But based on his résumé as a defensive coordinator at Central Florida, Auburn and Texas, when the Longhorns won the 2005 national title, it’s not far-fetched to think he’ll have at least some measurable impact on the Tar Heels this season.

“Two huge things he’s worked on that kind of go hand in hand are tracking and tackling: tracking the ball and tackling the guy carrying the ball,” Tar Heels linebacker Shakeel Rashad said. “He’s so detail-oriented. There’s nothing he doesn’t think of. No matter what you’re doing, he’s thought of it, he’s thought of what could happen next, and he probably wrote down a list of things that couldn’t happen just for fun. There’s nothing that’s going to slip by him.”

Chizik also had the advantage of being able to watch as an analyst the past two seasons as defenses across the country struggled to keep pace with offensive innovations. Though it's unclear exactly what quality of personnel North Carolina will put on the field or how quickly they’ll be able to pick up Chizik’s system, he is ready to see how much he gained from sitting out.

“When you can sit back and observe and see the big picture and there’s no pressure, you definitely look at things a little bit different, and I think that's helpful,” Chizik. “You see a lot of variations of offenses and who handles them good and why, who handles them bad and why, so it gives you that insight.

“I’m just enjoying myself, and it’s great to just kind of be back in this role. The pressure I’ve put on myself since I’ve been doing this 28 or 29 years now is to always do the best job I can do, and I expect to win. I expect our guys to play good. I expect to be competitive every time we step on the field.”